Ted Cruz tells CPAC: ‘Stand on principle’

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz opened the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday morning by outlining how conservatives can win in 2014 and beyond, saying GOP candidates need to “stand for principle” and draw clear contrasts with Democrats.

“There are a lot of D.C. consultants who say there’s a choice for Republicans to make: We can either choose to keep our head down, to not rock the boat, to not stand for anything, or we can stand for principle,” he said. “They say if you stand for principle you lose elections. The way to do it — the smart way, the Washington way — is don’t stand against Obamacare, don’t stand against the debt ceiling, don’t stand against nothing. I want to tell you something — that is a false dichotomy.”

Mitch McConnell speech at CPAC 2014

“In ‘06, ‘08 and ‘12, we put our head down, stood for nothing — and we got walloped,” he said.

But 2010, when Republicans won a “historic tidal wave of an election,” was different, Cruz continued: That year, the GOP took strong positions against Obamacare and “bankrupting the country,” and voters rewarded them with big electoral gains across the board.

He joked about would-be presidents Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney — and said the reason they didn’t win the White House is because they didn’t draw a clear enough contrast between themselves and the Democrats they ran against.

“Those are good men, those are decent men — but when you don’t stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate,” he said.

Those principles, he said, include defending the Constitution, abolishing the IRS, expanding school choice, establishing term limits and combating “lawlessness” and corruption in the government.

The crowd for Cruz’s speech, which came first in the conference, was fairly small at first as attendees waited in line to get in. But it grew throughout the speech — and the biggest applause for Cruz came when he said the GOP needs to “repeal every word of Obamacare.”

Cruz also said the Republican Party can do better among young voters, a voting bloc that in the Obama era has been overwhelmingly Democratic. He said candidates like former President Ronald Reagan and former Rep. Ron Paul drew so many young followers because they presented a clear vision for a better country — and that the effect of the current administration on young people, including Obamacare, rising deficits and high unemployment, gives the GOP an opening.